Killer Waffles

Being a lazy Sunday morning, Jeff is making a batch of blueberry pancakes and I am reading my New York Times. Dogs are around the house somewhere. A great morning.

I love waffles more than pancakes, but they are more cumbersome to prepare; one at a time in a single iron. Sometimes, during cold winter months, I make the effort with a fabulous recipe book I picked up. But to me, waffles are the ultimate eat-out Sunday brunch food. A shout out to Cities 97, I have now found a new destination for the craving. It sells itself as a Coffee Cafe with the motto - Be Woke, Stay Buzzed, but....

Buzz Coffee and Cafe has tapped into the donut craze and brought it into their own, with apparently multitudes of specialty types & 200 spinoffs in toppings. Their Instagram page is drool worthy to be sure. Even gluten free and vegan options  along with vegan meats. They rattle off names like Butter Beer, Candied Pecan & Honey, Chai, Chocolate Potato Chip, Banana Bread, Cranberry Chicken, Chili Dog..... this list goes on and on and really needs to be seen to be believed! How about a Mermaid - a purple waffle w/ sprinkles, whipped cream & Swedish Fish! What 8 year old would not want to try that? Or for adults, the Med Chicken - w/ chicken, spinach & provolone topped with basil and whipped butter!

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Crunch

Two locations are on the outskirts in Plymouth and Burnsville. But this sounds like a road trip worth taking to me. If I went every week for a year it would take me 4 years to make a dent in all 200 varieties. Ponder that.

Vegan Strawberry Brie

Arkansas Black Apple

Here is a story for the Fall Harvest. We are just arriving at apple picking season and I would guess almost each of us will plan an outing somewhere in the area to grab a last gasp at warmth; with a hot cider, some music and maybe even a pumpkin patch.

In Minnesota we are famous for our Honeycrisp variety out of the U of MN. But I wasn't aware that we are truly a pioneer in terms of cross breeding to find something that is hardy to Northern climates as well as a crisp, sweet favorite. I cannot imagine the endless time and effort over the course of many years to yield results. This is not done in a laboratory but in row after row of orchards in both St Paul and the Arboretum. We are notable for the Sweet Tango, Honeygold, Zestar and Haralson among others. That is an impressive fruit basket!

But a variety out of Arkansas caught my eye earlier this year. It is an interesting breed both literally and figuratively. To grab them off the tree, they are a terrible tasting phenomenon. Apparently, the true payoff comes after months of cold storage to let them continue ripening over an extended period. The result supposedly has hints of cherry, cinnamon, vanilla and coriander. Interesting!

This particular crop traces its roots to Bentonville AR going back to 1870. With no horticulture data, it is merely assumed that it was a pollinating accident of a similar colonial Winesap variety. This dates back to the Johnny Appleseed tales of early Americana. The Arkansas Black reached a heyday in the 1920's until a moth infestation and the Great Depression relegated it to a back burner.

Currently, it is still not a hot market item. But with heirloom interest and risk taking in the food industry, it is at least popping up as a curiosity item. I am wondering where the closest vendor would be in MN to give them a taste?

The Great Pillsbury Bake Off and others

As a few of my friends are prepping their pies and other baked good for the MN State Fair. As I myself am pouring over some pickling possibilities for our Gertens work contest. As I am always harvesting left over produce to find new recipes for cherry salsa or peach turnovers.... I was recently talking to my mom about the old Pillsbury Bake Off. I remember her trying out a new variety of a pineapple surprise in hopes of winning some sort of $2000 pay-off in the grand scheme of All Things Baking.

Thanks to a feature I had bookmarked in the Star Trib from a friend Julie Kendrick, I got some useful stats on the contest now that I live much closer to it's original roots here in MN. It started way back in 1949 to promote flour sales. As cooking trends grew throughout the 50's, it was expanded as a way to promote box mixes, refrigerated doughs and other new trends that Pillsbury was introducing. Now it offers a cash prize of $50,000 along with a suite of GE appliances and a feature in the Food Network magazine. It was the pioneer of reality baking that is now a cultural norm on television programming.

2019 - Dublin Cheeseboard-Stuffed Appetizer Bread

 The contest prompted recipes that have now become staples in our kitchens. Peanut Butter Blossoms. Tunnel of Fudge Cake. Rocky Road Fudge Bars. The article also talks about how, like fashion, it sometimes foreshadowed trends in the national baking realm. The aforementioned Tunnel of Fudge Cake created a massive shortage of bundt cake pans in 1966, which spurred a profit opportunity for Nordicware, also in Minneapolis. They produced large quantities to meet the consumer craze. 1954 brought an onslaught of sesame seeds with the Open Sesame Pie. A Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt in 1966 was a new flavor explosion that is now common every Starbucks and Caribou. In the 1980's, oat bran was just coming up as an eating trend.

1950 - Orange Kiss-Me Cake

I myself have a satisfaction in trying out those unusual recipes to be that odd-man-out winner. Cantaloupe bread. Cardamom bread. Sour Cherry BBQ sauce. Along with that come some failures. Like my Triple Layer Coconut Tarte last Christmas. Rarely are they a disaster, but I regret the energy I put into them, so I return to staples like peanut butter cookies. Whether a crock pot or a baking sheet, I enjoy whichever season upon us then file away those new favorites in a plastic recipe box, flag them in a cookbook or save them as a digital bookmark.
 

1952- Snappy Turtle Cookies

I will let you know how my Lemon Pickled Green & Yellow Beans, Horseradish Pickles and Pickled Pumpkin turn out over the next few weeks.

original article: Memories of Past Pillsbury Bake-offs 

And the Winner Is.... every single winning recipe 

Glamour Showgirls

As my feeds filled up with shot after shot last week from Pride marches all around the country, I realize there is a universal fascination with what would be called Glamour Girls. Some lean raunchy & sexy while others are more like pageant queens. Almost all center around sequins, feathers and bright colored eye-makeup.

I don't know my history, but I would guess these #femmefatales really came into prominence with the early days of Hollywood whcih featured Vamps and Ziegfeld girls. Over time it yielded to burlesque, circus shows and even Spectacles on Ice. Playboy Bunnies put them on full display during the 60's.

This post is a draft saved almost 3 years back that was just waiting for the time to present itself to me. It was from a photo collage that showed the backstage antics of the traveling Side Show. There is something gritty to me about the congruence of pump heels in muddy fields of tents & train cars. They brought the glamour to the masses is rural areas that must have seen it as decadent. Whereas some of the 40's pin-up types seemed manufactured, there is something that appears to me to be genuine in these #carny girls. Maybe it is the photos with candid access, but I still prefer this to what many would now call Camp as depicted at this year's Met Gala. Give them a look and click on the link for the full album.

Mind Circle Showgirls

 

 

Our Gay Heritage

This is the time of the year when our feeds are flooded with pics of Gay Pride Parades, not only across the country, but around the world. So many happy faces of people of all types are celebrating their unique selves. We are lucky to be able express this joy in spite of the global unrest. We are certainly in better times!

With the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall, we have a landmark moment to reflect on. We think on those heroes and the many that have followed in what can sometimes be called a crusade. Ask many friends and they will comment that I can be a crusader on many things, but I wear my flag on my sleeve in a much quieter and reflective way. I look back on the silent masses who did not feel the need to shatter the earth, but made much smaller murmurs.

And there are pictures of these unnamed couples. Almost all have no names attached and they were fine with that in the confines of their own era. But stumbling on Pinterest of all places, I find a different kind of quiet joy in these intimate moments of celebration. There are many of them out there. Here are only a few to share.

Vintage Fashions ala 1975

With all the ballyhoo about the Met Gala, I am pulling out a draft post going back a year. It has been waiting for the right moment to present itself to me. 

This year's theme was Camp, which is a great motif to play on. The concept of camp can lend itself from anything to drag to disco. Retro somehow always finds a way into campiness as well. And this fashion revisit is an entire on-line collection devoted to patterns of yesteryear. I am centering in particular on the year 1975. It sits reflecting on the flower power era which was still in bloom, as well as teetering on the brink of the discotheque craze that was about to take rage. Those fashions had so much to draw on in terms of color, pattern and even gender options.

Growing up in Erie, it was not quite the epicenter of fashion. But I got glimpses of it from the Sonny & Cher show or certainly the Osmonds. I dared to wear a fringe vest to school with a choker chain around my neck. That was BOLD! I loved my denim elephant bells and saddle shoes. I could get natty with an argyle vest. And a favorite was a pair of banana yellow bell bottoms. I have no idea where this sense came from????

My mom was handy with a sewing machine and could easily churn something out. Usually for the girls, but I remember a few spunky blazers and even a billowy Victorian shirt at some point that I loved. 
Check out some of these pages if you have time. This resource is not the actual patterns themselves, but just a catalogue of the pattern envelopes. However if you look for the comments under each listing, you can see there are still a handful of collectors out there who will trade.

 
Vintage Patterns : 1975

California Gold Rush

California is often viewed as a Utopia of sunshine and all things natural from sun tans to fresh avocados. I have visited family and friends from North of the Bay Area to the far south of San Diego & Balboa Park. And it was indeed stunning from the vineyards to the black sand beaches. It truly is blessed by God's bounty.

 
As if nature could not handle any more. This last March was a perfect combination of rain, moderate temps and a lack of damaging winds. It resulted in what is called a Super Bloom which usually occur every decade or so. So while we continue our slow spring turnover here in MN, there was a plethora of poppies there just a few weeks back. Magnificent!


 This occurred in the area of Walker Canyon outside of southeast Los Angeles. Of course there were the ever popular CA Poppies of bright mandarin orange, but also fields of yellow and purple blooms as well. What made this year's phenomenon momentous was the network of social media and a viral wave of public interest. There was such a massive exodus for the hour drive from LA that Interstate 15 resembled rush hour traffic. The same outbursts that drew crowds, began to draw caution as Riverside County declared a public safety emergency. Hashtags of #PoppyShutdown and #IsItOverYet eventually became "At this time, it is not feasible for us to keep visitors away from #WalkerCanyon." Clusters of tourists with strollers, puppy dogs and high heels attempted to conquer the rugged hillside after the desperate road blocks. I would have made the trip too!